Week 51 - Haggai, Zechariah 1-6, & Revelation 22 (Dec. 17-23)

Notes

Haggai

Date of Authorship: Are you tired of me telling you that we don’t know precisely when certain books of the Bible were written? Well, fear not, we know precisely when Haggai was written. Haggai is kind enough to write which year, month, and day that the word of the Lord came to him (relative to the reign of the Persian king Darius) and we have every reason to believe the text of Haggai was recorded at the same time. Because historians can confidently date Darius’ reign, we know that the events in Haggai occurred in the fall/winter of 520 BC.

Author: Haggai is a prophet who, besides appearing here, is also mentioned in Ezra 5:1 and 6:14. His ministry is contemporary to Ezra and Zechariah. Because he is not listed as one of those returning from exile in Ezra 2, most believe that he grew up in Judah, during the period of the exile. Jewish tradition maintains that Haggai was old enough to have remembered Solomon’s temple which was destroyed in 586.

Historical Background: The nation of Judah had been destroyed and many of them were exiled to Babylon in 586 AD. The Persian king, Cyrus, issued a decree that the exiles could return in 538. The first of the returnees arrived in 537 and reconstructed the altar of burnt offering that same year. In 586, the returnees laid the foundation for the new temple (a.k.a ‘the second temple,’ or ‘Zerubabel’s temple’). However, they encountered opposition to this project (Ezra 4:1-5), work stopped, and the reconstruction of the temple was neglected. Haggai’s ministry began 16 years after work on the temple had been stopped. 4-5 years after Haggai’s ministry, the second temple was completed.

Purpose: Haggai is sent by God to compel the people of Judah to resume the construction of the Temple. His initial message is well received, yet he still has work to do. God continues to speak through Haggai to encourage the Israelites even though their building was not as large or magnificent as Solomon’s temple, and he also warns them not to stain or make unclean their building with unfaithful hearts and hands. Haggai’s final prophecy is a reassurance that God’s eternal promise regarding the Davidic covenant will be fulfilled, and a recognition that this fulfillment has already been realized in part in the leadership of Zerubbabel (himself a descendant of David).

Zechariah

Date of Authorship:  Zechariah includes a few historical markers in 1:1, 1:7, and 7:1 so we can date Part I (chapters 1-8) of this book confidently from November 520 BC to December 518 BC. Part II of Zechariah (chapters 9-14) are harder to date. The origin of these last 6 chapters is a hotly contested issue - most conservative scholars attribute them to Zechariah from around the turn of the 5th century BC (~500 BC).

Author: These are the words of Zechariah, though there are no claims of he himself authoring the book and the consistent use of the third-person throughout seems to indicate that the text was recorded and or compiled by others. Zechariah was a contemporary of Haggai. He was a priest (descended from an important priestly family (his grandfather Iddo is mentioned in Nehemiah 12:4) Zechariah and Haggai seem to be a sort of prophetic team as the pair are mentioned twice in Ezra (5:1 & 6:14).

Setting: Zechariah was a priest and prophet to Jerusalem as the return from Babylonian exile was in process. His grandfather (& family presumably) had been part of the first batch of exiles to return with Zerubbabel in 538 BC (see Nehemiah 12:4 - Zerubbabel served as governor of the Israelite people and was a Davidic heir - the grandson of king Jehoiachin - more on Zerubbabel below). Worship at the temple had resumed and the altar of burnt offering was functioning, but the construction of the temple had ground to a halt because of external opposition and a lack of commitment or enthusiasm on behalf of the people of Jerusalem. The occasion for part I (chapters 1-8) of Zechariah is the prophetic push (together with Haggai) for completion of the construction of the Temple which began in 520 BC and was accomplished in 515 BC. Part II of Zechariah (chapters 9-14) came a couple of decades later when disillusion had set in about the prospect of Israel’s and Jerusalem’s return to prominence.

Purpose: Zechariah divides into two very distinct sections. Part I is an image-filled prophetic compulsion for the Israelites in Jerusalem to see that the Temple gets restored and Part II is a message of clarity and certainty to a people who are both confused about what God’s promises to restore Jerusalem and David’s line will look like, and doubtful that it will ever arrive.

Revelation 22: Heaven a city or Garden?

This will come as news to many, but in fact, it should be central to the worldview of the Christian. The whole of Christian theology is based on the goodness of creation, yet the goodness of creation consists partly in this, that it points beyond itself to the new creation. It isn't the case that the new creation was an afterthought, a Plan B once the first creation had gone so badly wrong. Human sin has meant that God's eventual design has had to be arrived at by a long, winding, and often tear-stained and blood-spattered route, the most important tears and blood being those of God himself, in the person of the lamb. But, as with the triumphant conclusion of Exodus, so with Revelation, the goal is achieved by the power of sheer mercy and grace, the mercy and grace through which creation is not abolished but fulfilled, not thrown away and replaced but renewed from top to bottom.

The mystery then unfolds a step further. For most of Revelation, the nations' and their kings have been hostile. They have shared in the idolatry and economic violence of Babylon; they have oppressed and opposed God, his purposes, and his people. But the earlier hints of God's wider redeeming purpose now come fully into play. The witness of the martyr-church in chapter 11 resulted in the nations, which had been raging against God, coming instead to give him glory (11.13). Now here they come in procession, in the long fulfillment of scriptural prophecies such as Psalm 72.10-11 (note the prayer in 72.19, that God's glory would fill the whole earth!), Isaiah 49.6-7, Zechariah 14.16-17, and above all Isaiah 60, the chapter which anticipates several elements in John's vision. Here they come, bringing their glory into the city through the wide-open gates. The city itself is not a tableau, a static picture with people simply gazing at the glorious golden streets or indeed at God himself and the lamb. It is a bustling community, filled with activity, as the nations come to worship and do homage.

John's vision, then, is of a new Eden; but it is a city, not simply a garden. All the elements of the garden are still there but enshrined and enhanced within and around the city. We know in our bones that we were made for both, though the romantic ideal of the countryside on the one hand and the developers' dream of the city, on the other hand, both routinely fail to hit the mark. The new creation, drawing the double vision together, transforms and heals both. As heaven and earth come together, as the bride and the lamb come together - both of them signs that the dualities in Genesis are at last united, as was always intended - so the garden and the city come together as well. Humans, in community with one another and with God, are to exercise their delighted and wise stewardship over the earth and its fruits, in the glorious light that comes from the throne.

NT Wright, Revelation for Everyone, 199

Revelation 22: The Holy Spirit in Revelation

"The spirit and the bride say, "Come!" (V. 17)

The spirit has been a mysterious presence throughout John's book: sometimes sevenfold, sometimes the spirit of prophecy. So much of the focus has been on God and the lamb. We might have thought, if we weren't careful, that John believed in a Binity rather than a Trinity.

How wrong would we have been? It is the spirit that enables the bride to be the bride. It is the spirit that enables the martyrs to keep up their courage and bear true witness. It is the spirit that inspires the great shouts and songs of praise. The spirit goes out from God's throne and, breathing into and then through the hearts, minds, and lives of people of every nation, tribe, and tongue, returns in praise to the Father and the Lamb.

This is as trinitarian as it gets, and the bride is caught up in that inner-divine life, so that when she says 'Come!' to her beloved we can't tell whether this is the spirit speaking or the bride, because the answer is both. The spirit of the Messiah enables his bride to be who she is, lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes, not his.

NT Wright, Revelation for Everyone, 206